


The Veil Is Not OSHA Compliant

by DoctorV



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Drowning, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash, Red Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-28
Updated: 2011-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-19 20:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorV/pseuds/DoctorV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Safety rails were a fantastic, amazing, <i>completely wonderful</i> invention that apparently <i>did not fucking exist in the Veil</i>. (Written for a kinkmeme prompt.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Veil Is Not OSHA Compliant

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anonymous](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Anonymous).



Safety rails were a fantastic, amazing, _completely wonderful_ invention that apparently _did not fucking exist in the Veil_. It was this sad fact of life that Karkat was lamenting (or silently raging over) as he sputtered and flailed near the top of a giant tank of liquid. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse that this particular tank wasn't housing a giant monster. On the one hand, he wasn't sinking through lusus fetus liquid. On the other hand, he might have been able to use the creature to climb back up to the top of the tank.

Unfortunately, flailing wildly was rarely an effective means of staying above the surface of any body of liquid, so Karkat was losing the battle of clawing his way back up to precious, life-giving air. In fact, as his lungs burned and begged to be refilled, he was steadily losing the battle to stay conscious. Anger at his stupidity in falling off a walkway, at the lack of safety rails, at _the entire fucking universe for shitting on him every day of his life_ , slowly gave way to despair.

He managed to touch the glass of the tank, but he didn't have the strength left to even attempt to break it. It wouldn't have mattered if he had, the glass was designed to hold giant monsters. One tiny troll had no hope of even cracking it.

Darkness closing in on him, Karkat felt his feet and then his knees hit the bottom of the tank and the last of his air escaped his mouth in a stream of tiny bubbles. As he weakly pressed a hand to the glass, he thought he saw movement and a flash of purple coming from the shadows, but his eyelids were too heavy to watch.

Slumped and floating at the bottom of the tank, Karkat closed his eyes.

\-----

Cape and scarf were discarded as Eridan ran for the rusty stairs leading up to the treacherous walkway Karket had fallen from. It clanked and swayed dangerously, but he wasn't on it long enough for that to be a concern. As soon as he was over part of the tank, he dove off of the walkway and gracefully sliced into the liquid with barely a splash.

He hadn't actually been _looking_ for Karkat, he had just been wandering aimlessly. The computer lab was kind of boring and he didn't really want to talk to anyone. (Actually it was more that no one wanted to talk to _him_ , but he preferred not to think of it that way.) So he had decided to pick a direction and start walking, hoping to maybe find something interesting.

What he had found was Karkat falling off of the walkway, after it gave a sudden lurch, and falling into a giant tank of something that probably wasn't water. He hadn't been especially concerned at first, because really what kind of wriggler didn't fuckin' know how to _swim_? Then his collapsing and expanding bladder-based aquatic vascular system had sunk into his digestive sac as he realized "Oh shit, Kar doesn't knoww howw to swwim." Then his thoughts had streamlined into "get to Kar" and "get Kar out" and he had started moving.

His gills flared as he cautiously took in the liquid. It tasted awful, but it had enough oxygen for him to breathe comfortably. Not that he was planning to stick around in it for very long.

He moved his fingers as far apart as he could, expanding the webbing between them to help him swim down faster. He could see Karkat far below him, a motionless blob of grey and black huddled limp and pathetic at the bottom of the tank, and his aquatic vascular system lurched at the thought that he might already be too late. He might be a filthy landdweller, but Kar was pretty okay as far as Eridan was concerned.

The fear that he was too late increased when he reached Karkat and the other troll didn't even twitch when Eridan touched him. It was that fear that motivated him to move even faster, looping an arm around Karkat's chest and kicking off from the bottom of the tank. Karkat's weight barely registered with the seatroll, used to hauling much heavier weights from much deeper depths.

They broke the surface of the liquid moments later and Eridan tried to keep Karkat's head in the air while he kept his own gills in the liquid for the moment, not wanting to deal with trying to breathe liquid and air at the same time. The tank was just full enough that Eridan could reach the top of it and, with some difficulty, haul them both up. The glass was strong but not thick, so the edge of the open tank was precarious to balance on. That was unfortunate since the tank was also very tall and thus it was quite some distance to the ground.

A quick look around and Eridan found some lab equipment near enough that he could jump onto it and from there to the floor. Sweeping Karkat up into his arms and tightening his hold on him, he did just that.

Finally free of the tank, Eridan laid out Karkat on the floor and began looking him over. Karkat wasn't breathing.

"Oh cod, he's fuckin' dead," Eridan whispered, panic flooding him before he thought to check for a pulse. He didn't actually know how, so he just pressed his auricular canal to Karkat's chest.

There was a faint beat, slow but persistent, but Karkat still wasn't breathing. Wracking his thinkpan, Eridan tried to remember if there was a way to fix a broken landdweller. Something, _anything_. Then it hit him. Fef had insisted he learn, even though he insisted right back that he _hated_ landdwellers and in fact _wanted_ them to be dead. Still, she was his moirail and she insisted it was for his own good that he learn a breathing technique to help air-suckers who had spent too much time in their realm. It had been so long ago, and he hadn't been paying much attention, but he thought he remembered enough to save Karkat. Maybe.

Mentally sending out a thanks to Fef for being a better moirail than he probably deserved, Eridan tilted Kar's head and sealed his lips over the other troll's.

\-----

Karkat woke gasping and retching, struggling to move. Hands were on him, helping him to turn onto his side, and a gush of filthy liquid poured from his mouth, trailed by a wet coughing fit. He curled in on himself while the hands rubbed soothing circles on his back, supporting him as his digestive and respiratory sacs spasmed to shove bile and liquid up his protein chute. Finally he was left panting for air and coughing every time he managed to get it.

"Kar? Kar, can ya hear me?"

With a groan, Karkat flopped onto his back and stared up blearily at a wide-eyed Eridan Ampora. "Bluh," he rasped in response.

Eridan frowned at that, but took it as the answer it technically was. "H-Howw're you feelin'?" he asked, sounding a little short of breath.

Now that Karkat's head was clearing a little, he realized Eridan was soaked. That shouldn't have been unusual for a seatroll, but he was pretty sure he had never seen Eridan's hair in quite such a state of disarray, hanging around his face in pathetic, dripping strands. The other troll brushed his hair back from his forehead and shook his hand off to the side, staring down at him with concern.

"What--" Karkat started to ask, then trailed off as it came back to him. Glancing to the side, he saw the tank of liquid that had almost managed to do what his childhood and a homicidal fucking game had somehow failed to do: kill him.

"H-hey Kar, it's okay."

He didn't even realize he had started shaking until Eridan gently gripped his shoulders, trying to block his view of the tank. "You're okay noww, you're okay. I got you."

Karkat let himself be pulled up into a seated hug, Eridan holding him close and petting his back. As far as hugs went, it was unpleasantly soggy and squishy, but that comprised most of his immediate world at the moment so he didn't bother to muster the energy to complain. Besides, Eridan was warm and he had never realized how very cold the Veil could be until he was sitting on the floor covered in dirty liquid that had almost killed him.

"Thanks," he managed to mumble against Eridan's shoulder.

"Sure, a-any time," Eridan muttered back, then tightened his hold for a moment. "Except y'knoww, nevver fuckin' do that again, okay?"

Karkat coughed wetly. "Didn't mean to do it _this_ time, nookstain."

"Heh, sounds like you're feelin' better."

"Ugh, what is that shit?" he grumbled, closing his eyes. Any minute now he was going to push Eridan away and compose himself. Any minute. "I feel like I drank a fucking gallon of it. If I start to mutate into a lusus or something because of it, shoot me, okay?"

Eridan chuckled softly, leaning his head against Karkat's. "Sure, wwhatevver."

"I'm serious, Ampora. I've had enough of taking care of grubs to last me the rest of my miserable fucking life, I'm not turning into a goddamn lusus."

"Wwhatevver you say, Kar."

Eridan Ampora had no fucking right to be so warm and comfortable to lean against. None whatsoever. Sighing, Karkat finally lifted his heavy arms to return the hug. Sliding back toward unconsciousness, he could almost swear he felt something like lips briefly pressing against his hair.

Whatever.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt was:  
> "Redrom, in which Eridan saves Karkat from drowning.  
> Preferably an AU where they're still on Alternia or some new planet or Earth (or wherever you want), but only because I can't think of any reason why there would be water on the meteor that Karkat can foolishly fall into and almost drown, but if you can think of something, then that's awesome, too!"
> 
> Apparently the trick to getting me to write things is to say something along the lines of "I don't know how this could work." *facepalm*  
> I realize I didn't quite hit redrom with this, though there are hints of it if you squint. May do a second part to get there, but don't hold your breath. ...Heh. (I made a funny.)


End file.
